Today, IAM Union International President Brian Bryant, along with three other petitioners of a 301 complaint against the Chinese government’s predatory trade practices in the shipbuilding, logistics and maritime industries, sent a letter to President Trump urging his Administration to enforce strong penalties against China and to implement policies that will restore U.S. maritime power and promote national economic and security interests.
President Trump has often made statements promoting the interests of American workers and the need to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP). The dire state of our domestic shipbuilding industry, hobbled by Chinese predatory behavior and the harm it has thrust on U.S. shipyard workers, presents a prime opportunity for the President to step up and reinvigorate this strategically important industry.
“As a shipyard worker myself, out of Bath Iron Works in Maine, I have seen firsthand the crippling impacts of China’s predatory actions on our domestic shipbuilding industry,” said IAM Union International President Brian Bryant. “For decades, we’ve seen everything from layoffs to shipyard closures to atrophy of our domestic shipbuilding industrial base. That is why last year we filed a petition for relief under Section 301 of our trade laws to challenge the CCP’s unreasonable and discriminatory policies and actions in the logistics, shipbuilding and maritime sectors.”
The previous administration released a comprehensive report finding that over the past several decades, the Chinese Communist Party advanced a systematic array of unfair trade practices and economic policies designed to dominate and control the maritime, shipbuilding and logistics sectors. These actions have severely undermined these domestic industries and U.S. economic and national security along with it.
In its report, the Biden Administration made clear that responsive action is necessary and urgent to right this wrong and rebuild the domestic shipbuilding industry. This responsibility is now in the hands of Trump Administration, and the time to act is now.
“The IAM urges the administration to act swiftly and decisively, using every tool in the toolbox, implementing policy to jumpstart the domestic shipbuilding industry and create a level playing field on which it can thrive,” said Bryant. “We stand willing to work with the Trump Administration and all parties to rebuild and reinvigorate this vitally important industry on behalf of our members and for our nation’s economic and national security.”
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is one of North America’s largest and most diverse industrial trade unions, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive, and other industries.
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